Especially during start-up phase or when your company is facing change, you need time to reflect. Just keeping busy won’t cut it! The good part is, you can do it at your desk, no fancy technology is needed.

What you need

– at least 30 minutes without interuption

– take a sheet of paper

– create a list of 3 items or critical questions you want to think about

– take 10 minutes for each question and note down your most important thoughts

– sometimes you will think of direct actions you can take – do them immediately!

The first time I came across the term bootstrapping was through programming. Bootstrapping a computer program means to start a program in the most efficient way and with the least amount of resources needed for a specific task.

When developing software from this perspective, you have to keep all the parts modular and independent from each other. You have separate systems and processes each dedicated to a specific task. You differentiate between the logic flow of actions, the data and the display of information.

The same principles can be applied to your business and the process of starting it.

4 phases of a bootstrapped start-up

There are 4 common phases found in most boostrapped start-ups, covering the first 2-3 years of a business:

In a business context bootstrapping means to start and grow a business with the least amount of resources necessary to achieve the business goals.